


Kaleidoscope

by Ladybug_21



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Rise of Kyoshi, Avatar: The Shadow of Kyoshi
Genre: Avatars Whose Names Start With K Are Invariably Disaster Bisexuals, F/F, F/M, Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:46:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26936860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladybug_21/pseuds/Ladybug_21
Summary: kaleidoscope(n.): (1) a device that angles light to create a reflecting pattern; (2) a changing patternKorra unexpectedly gets some helpful relationship advice from a couple of her past lives. (Set between Seasons 3 and 4.)
Relationships: Korra & Naga, Korra/Asami Sato, Kuruk/Ummi (Avatar), Kyoshi/Rangi
Comments: 8
Kudos: 146





	Kaleidoscope

**Author's Note:**

> Just something that's been going through my head ever since I read the Avatar Kyoshi books over the summer and finished watching _Korra_. I own no rights to any of this fabulous fandom.

Korra had never liked sitting still, and this, as much as anything else, made her recovery at the Southern Water Tribe the most excruciatingly difficult period of her life. It was even worse than when Tenzin insisted that she sit and meditate for hours, because Korra could always get up and leave meditation when she wanted (and often did, to Tenzin's dismay). Now, though, despite Katara's best efforts to mend the damage that Zaheer's poison had inflicted, Korra could barely wiggle her toes, let alone run or jump or drop into the low stances necessary to send a blast of fire or a wall of stone at her adversaries.

Moreover, Korra was _lonely_. She had her parents, of course; and Katara; and the occasional letters from her friends in Republic City. Bolin's overwrought missives made the corner of Korra's mouth turn upwards, and Mako's halting communications were equally endearing for completely different reasons. But Korra truly did find that she was only comfortable reaching back out to Asami—Asami, the rich, pampered city girl who had proven her unexpected kindness and bravery and loyalty a hundred times over. It wasn't that Korra didn't love Mako and Bolin, as well, but Asami somehow managed to open up space for Korra to be vulnerable where her former pro-bending teammates didn't. Perhaps it was that, despite her material privilege, Asami—who had always excelled in combat even without bending—was still slowly overcoming the ache of her father's betrayal, in the same way that Korra was step by shaky step overcoming being betrayed by her own body.

Letters were one small form of comfort; family was another. But Korra's loneliness went deeper than that. Unlike the Toph Beifongs and Ming-Huas of the world, who had grown up figuring out how to compensate for certain physical traits and became formidable benders regardless, Korra could only bend properly when she could move as she always had. Learning to bend expertly without her legs would take years, and the world didn't _have_ years to wait for its Avatar. And, in the meantime, what was the point of an Avatar who wasn't a master of _any_ of the elements?

Since she couldn't do much else anyway, Korra closed her eyes and calmed her mind and willed the universe to let even just one of her past lives appear to her, to help guide the way forward. _Please_ , she thought, _anyone listening, just one conversation with Aang or Roku or Yangchen, someone who will be able to show me how I can still be the Avatar, after everything that's happened..._

No response. Korra, miserable, kept her eyes closed and felt her tears drip down onto her hands, folded neatly in her lap the way Tenzin had taught her.

Finally, everything became too much for Korra—her frustratingly slow healing sessions with Katara, her parents' quiet but overbearing attention, the fact that no one was going to offer Korra the guidance that she needed (not Zuko, not Katara, not even Toph Beifong herself, wherever she was). Korra whistled for Naga, and when the polar bear dog appeared, Korra gripped her fingers into the fur of Naga's neck, until Naga understood what Korra wanted and gently nudged Korra's legs up onto her back with her nose. The two rode into the icy stillness of the snow, the aurora dancing overhead, the capital and its inhabitants and their overwhelming expectations growing smaller and smaller behind. But without her legs to support her grip on Naga, Korra tired far more quickly than she would have expected, her arms cramping where they held Naga's neck, the lower half of her body jolting uselessly against the saddle as Naga loped forward. When Korra finally slid off Naga's back with a thud, Naga lay down next to Korra and nudged her with her nose, but Korra shook her head, too exhausted to continue. Instead, she rolled onto her back and looked up at the shimmering lights above. Asami's most recent letter crinkled in her pocket, and Korra absent-mindedly began composing a response as Naga curled up around her. _Dear Asami, not much new over here (still can't walk, still can't do any real bending), watching the Southern Lights with Naga and wishing you were here, too..._

Korra wasn't aware that she had fallen asleep until she woke up to a loud bark of laughter. Naga had disappeared, but when Korra turned her head to the side, she saw that two people were sitting nearby, next to a little campfire. One was a handsome man wearing the traditional garb of the Northern Water Tribe, but the other was clearly from the Earth Kingdom, and by the looks of her, specifically from Kyoshi Island. Curious, Korra pushed herself to her elbows and dragged herself inch by inch towards the fire on her stomach.

"She's finally awake," commented the man, and both he and the woman turned to look at Korra.

And Korra blinked and stared back at the faces of two of her previous lives.

"You can stand up and walk over, you know," Avatar Kyoshi commented, her painted eyebrows flickering upwards.

"I can't," mumbled Korra, mortified.

"You _sure_ about that?" Avatar Kuruk urged her.

Scowling, Korra grit her teeth and pushed herself to her knees... and found that her legs were working normally again.

"How...?" she asked, astounded.

"Under the Northern and Southern Lights is a space that's neither the physical world nor the Spirit World," shrugged Kyoshi. "It's probably best not to think too logically about what happens here."

"Then I'm not cured?" Korra asked desperately.

"Not yet," said Kuruk. "But keep working at it, and you will be. Surely your healer's told you that much already?"

Korra stood and walked over to the little campfire to take a seat next to the previous Avatars. Their familiar faces, cast half in shadow by the firelight, struck Korra as oddly human, stripped as they were of the heroic expressions with which they had been memorialized across Korra's childhood in paint and stone.

"So." Kyoshi leaned slightly forward, her tall frame looming over Korra's from across the fire. "You have questions for us."

Korra opened her mouth, hesitated, and burst into tears instead. Kuruk and Kyoshi glanced at each other anxiously.

"Spirits, I wish Yangchen were here, I'm no good at this," muttered Kuruk.

"I'm sorry," Korra sobbed. "It's just, I can barely bend _anything_ , and horrible things are still happening out there, and it's my job to stop them, and I can't. I don't even know who I am anymore."

"Listen," said Kyoshi sternly, "just because you're having trouble bending right now, it does _not_ meant that you're not still the true Avatar and that you won't find your way forward. Take it from someone who knows."

"And you can't take on the burden of the entire world on your own," Kuruk reminded her, not unkindly.

" _You_ did," Korra pointed out.

"And I died when I was thirty-three," Kuruk retorted. "I would _not_ recommend going that route. Honestly, it's been interesting seeing what you've done with the spirit portals. I made a total mess of my life trying to handle the spirits all by myself. It seems you've done much better by making them everyone's problem—and, therefore, forcing everyone to be part of the solution."

"Well, not everyone's happy, co-existing with the spirits," Korra sighed.

"Nothing you do is ever going to make _everyone_ happy," Kyoshi said grimly, staring into the fire. "Figure out whose advice you really trust, and ignore everyone else. Why do you think every Avatar has surrounded themselves with a team of friends and advisers?"

"Or, conversely, why do you think bad fortune has always befallen the Avatars who have stopped relying on their team of friends and advisers?" grimaced Kuruk.

Korra sighed and unconsciously put one hand over Asami's letter in her pocket.

"Maybe I'm wrong to shut out so many of the people who care about me," she said quietly. "But right now, I feel like there's only one person in the world who understands, and she's all the way in Republic City and can't be here with me."

Kyoshi and Kuruk shot each other a significant look. Korra noticed.

"What?"

"Oh, she _definitely_ follows the pattern," smirked Kuruk.

"Fine, you win," sighed Kyoshi, flicking Kuruk with a puff of chilly air from the end of one of her metal fans.

"What pattern?" Korra asked.

"Just something we've picked up on, over the years," Kuruk shrugged, his handsome face still grinning wickedly. "About the, er, romantic preferences of some of the Avatars."

"Those Avatars being the ones whose names start with the sound K," Kyoshi clarified.

Korra looked from Kuruk to Kyoshi, and then she remembered something that she'd heard about years and years ago, about Avatar Kyoshi and the master Firebender Rangi.

"They... like women?" she asked, confused. "But... but I was dating Mako..."

"Fair, because they like women _and_ they like men," Kuruk added.

Korra blinked at him.

"But... you were engaged to Ummi," she said stupidly, vaguely shocked that she somehow still remembered one of Tenzin's excruciatingly dull lectures on Avatar history.

"Avatar Korra, what part of the phrase 'women _and_ men' do you not understand?" sighed Kyoshi impatiently.

"Believe me, I had _plenty_ of time to figure out that I was interested in both, before I got engaged to Ummi," Kuruk smirked.

"I'm _not_ in love with Asami!" Korra insisted, not entirely convinced.

"And I did _not_ go through the trouble of very publicly blazing a trail hundreds of years ago, only to have people in your era feel too ashamed to walk it!" Kyoshi snapped. "Why should anyone care if you love this woman? Are people really going to make a fuss about it, these days?"

"And why should _you_ care, most of all?" Kuruk added.

"You're never going to be able to bring balance to the world, if you can't even find enough internal balance to let yourself love whom you love," Kyoshi scolded Korra, her dramatic makeup making her frown even more intimidating. "You want our advice about how to heal and regain your bending fully? Stop lying to yourself about something so fundamental to who you are."

"Agreed," nodded Kuruk, "just accept it and carry on with things. Maybe even ask this girl out on a date, when you're back in the same city again?"

"But she dated my ex-boyfriend before I dated him!" Korra argued. "And also... sort of dated him in between when I was sort of dating him, too? My point is, I don't think she's even attracted to women!"

"Have you ever asked?" Kuruk challenged her. "You might be surprised at how many people default primarily to the opposite gender because it's the societal norm. Look, the worst she can do is say no, and sure, things may be a little awkward for a while. But you shouldn't let friendship get in the way of a good potential romance, especially if she's the type to want to stay friends even if it doesn't work out."

That all was true enough. Korra sighed and looked up at the sky, where the Southern Lights still arced overhead.

"Great, so all I have to do is find my inner peace, restore my personal balance, recover physically from being poisoned, work my bending back into shape, travel all the way back to Republic City, rejoin my friends, confess to one of them that I have a big crush on her, and somehow save the world. Piece of cake."

"Give yourself time," Kyoshi advised. "You're allowed to be injured and scared sometimes, you know. Even if you're the Avatar, you're also still only human."

"We've all had our moments of insecurity," Kuruk nodded. "Every single one of us. Look, Korra, I know you called on us because you wanted our advice about how to recover from all of this. The truth is, every Avatar has to face some challenges alone. We all have our own struggles, and even if some of yours may reflect some of ours, we can only tell you how Avatar Kuruk or Avatar Kyoshi would resolve them. Only you can figure out how Avatar Korra would and should."

"And you will," Kyoshi insisted. "We promise you will. And we'll be cheering you on, every step of the way. Silence is not absence, and even if we can't speak with you directly, we'll always still be here with you."

The fire was almost out, and Korra's eyelids grew heavy as she stared into the burning red embers. She closed her eyes and breathed in, trying to recall how it had felt to be guided into the Spirit World by Jinora—Jinora, who had looked so like her famous grandfather at her arrow-tattoo ceremony that Korra had shed a tear as the eternal loss of Aang's wisdom hit her anew. The remaining wood crackled, and Korra breathed the frozen air in and out slowly, Asami's letter crinkling against her side with every breath she took. Korra couldn't have said when she fell asleep, but when she finally awoke, she was back in her parents' house and coming out of a high fever, and she could tell that her father was only waiting for her to regain a little more strength before she got one of the biggest scoldings she had ever received in her life.

 _It was all just a fever dream_ , Korra told herself. _My connections with my past lives don't exist anymore. And Avatars have better things to do than appear in liminal spaces between the worlds to give their reincarnations relationship advice._ Still, the more she mulled over her conversation with her predecessors, the more sound their logic seemed. Even if it had all just been in her own mind, it seemed that Korra's mind had an important message or two to share.

(And Korra would never know it, but Senna remained confused for months afterwards as to why her daughter, found shivering out on the tundra with Naga curled around her, had smelled slightly of campfire smoke when Tonraq had carried her back into their home.)

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I know that Kuruk is not *canonically* bi, but, I mean, COME ON. Also, I'd bet good money that he and Nyahitha hooked up at least once, just saying.


End file.
